From Subsistence to Exchange and Other Essays (New Forum Books) - Softcover

Bauer, Peter Tamas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691117829 ISBN 13: 9780691117829

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2004

Synopsis

Peter Bauer, a pioneer of development economics, is an incisive thinker whose work continues to influence fields from political science to history to anthropology. As Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen writes in the introduction to this book, "the originality, force, and extensive bearing of his writings have been quite astonishing." This collection of Bauer's essays reveals the full power and range of his thought as well as the central concern that underlies so much of his diverse work: the impact of people's conduct, their cultural institutions, and the policies of their governments on economic progress.


The papers here cover pressing and controversial issues, including the process that transforms a subsistence economy into an exchange economy, the reputed correlation between poverty and population density, the alleged responsibility of the West for Third World poverty, the often counterproductive results of foreign aid, and the effects of egalitarian policies on individual freedoms. Bauer addresses these and other matters with clarity, verve, and wit, combining his deep understanding of economic theory and methodology with keen insights into human nature. The book is a penetrating account of how to develop a prosperous economy alongside a free and fair society and a stimulating introduction to the work of a man who has done so much to shape our modern understanding of developing economies and of the relationship of economics to the other social sciences.


"This selection of essays will give readers a wonderful opportunity to learn about the rich world of cognizance and analysis erected by one of the great architects of political economy. I feel privileged to be able to offer this letter of invitation."--From the introduction by Amartya Sen, Nobel Laureate in economics

About this title

About the Author

Peter Bauer (Lord Bauer) iwas Professor Emeritus of Economics, London School of Economics, University of London. The author of many books, he was Fellow of the British Academy and Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He died in 2002. Amartya Sen, winner of the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, is Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.

From the Back Cover

"The essays here contain many of the key elements of Professor Bauer's thought, which I regard as an oasis of common sense in a desert of muddled thinking.... He goes after weak and self-serving explanations with commendable vigor."--Richard Epstein, University of Chicago

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0691117829
• ISBN 13: 9780691117829
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 168